Boat storage hangar



2 Sheets-Sheet 1 H. BROOKS, JR

BOAT STORAGE HANGAR March 26, 1963 Filed Oct. 17, 1960 INVENTOR. HUGH 5900/03 h fizm/ 4 7' TOE/V5 Y March 26, 1963 H. BROOKS, JR

BOAT STORAGE HANGAR 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Oct. 17, 1960 57 Him I IVEN TOR. HUGH 5AO0K .4 TTOR/VE) United States atent O 3,082,887 BOAT STORAGE HANGAR Hugh Brooks, Jr., 1617 W. Mission Road, Alhambra, Calif. Filed Oct. 17, 1960, Ser. No. 63,041 Claims. (Cl. 214-16.4)

This invention relates to a hangar for storing small boats and deals more particularly with novel and improved means for moving boats between a dock and storage in the hangar.

An object of the present invention is to provide a hangar that supports or suspends the boats in cradle-like slings while in storage, the invention contemplating utilizing such slings as transporting means between a dock and storage.

Another object of the invention is to provide a hangar of the character indicated in which small boats may be stored in tiered rows on each side of a passageway in the hangar, thereby enabling large-capacity storage as well as flexibility of movement of the boats, selectively, between a dock and storage in the hangar.

A further object of the invention is to provide, in a boat storage hangar, facile and improved means for effecting transfer of the boat between its path of movement to and from storage and boat hanging means provided in the storage.

This invention also has for its objects to provide such means that are positive in operation, convenient in use, easily installed in a Working position and easily disconnected therefrom, economical of manufacture, relatively simple, and :of general superiority and serviceability.

The invention also comprises novel details of construction and novel combinations and arrangements of parts, which will more fully appear in the course of the following description, which is based on the accompanying drawings. However, said drawings merely show, and the following description merely describes, one embodiment of the present invention, which is given by way of illustration .or example only.

In the drawings, like reference characters designate similar parts in the several views.

FIG. 1 is a top plan view, with the hangar roof removed, of a boat storage hangar according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view thereof as seen on a longitudinal plane. a

FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional view as taken on the line 3-3 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a schematic perspective view of a bridge crane of generally conventional form and used in the present means to transport boats between a dock and storage.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged side elevational view of a carriage assembly in operative relationship to boat-storing hangar means.

FIG. 6 is a similarly enlarged front view of a portion of the lift side of the storage hangar, as in FIG. 3, the view showing one boat in storage position and another in the process of being moved to storage position in tiered relationship to said one boat.

FIG. 7 is a further enlarged perspective view .of a portion of the carriage assembly, as operatively engaged with a boat-suspending sling.

FIG. 8 is a similar view of a portion of a boat storage hangar means with a sling engaged therewith.

The boat storage hangar that is illustrated comprises, generally, a dock, pier or other place 10- at which small boats B are adapted to be received in adjacency to a landing or similar shore area 11, a hangar structure 12 erected ture.

Patented Mar. 26, 1963 upon said landing for receiving and storing the boats B, a pair of rails 13* extending from above the dock 10 and into the hangar structure 12, a bridge or travelling crane '14 mounted on the rails 13 to move therealong, preferably under control of an operator on the landing, a pair of lifting cables 15 suspended from and controlled by the crane, a carriage assembly 16 connected to the lower ends of the cables, a pair of slings 17 in which a boat B is adapted to be cradled or slung and having separable connection 'with the carriage assembly 16, and plural sets of hangar forks 18 in fixed position within the hangar structure 12 and arranged in tiers of horizontal rows on each side of a central passage 19 of said structure and receptive of the slings 17 by means of a hand-elf type of transfer from the carriage assembly 16.

The pier 10 is preferably of a length to accommodate two or more boats B in fore-and-aft arrangement, as in FIGS. 1 and 2. Such boats may be received at both sides of the pier or, one side may be used for boats awaiting storage and the other to receive boats from storage. In any case, the boats are preferably disposed longitudinally along the dock with the prows thereof directed toward the landing 11. Said landing is such that it may support the structure 12, the entrance to which may be spaced from the waters edge to provide an area for movement of boat personnel and also the operator of the crane 14. I The hangar structure 12 may have the generally rectangular form shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 to be as long as desired (only the entrance fragment being shown), as high as desired so as to store several tiers of boats B, and wide enough to have the central passage 19 and tiered rows of boats on each side of said passage.

The hangar structure 12 is provided with main frames 20 that are primarily made of main columns 21 that are arranged in pairs longitudinally along the length of the structure, and are connected at their upper ends by cross beams 22. Such structure may be enclosed at the top and sides as well as the end opposite the dock side with metal siding 23. The passage 19 is open to dock side.

The crane rails 13 are generally conventional and are preferably fixedly carried by the hangar structure at the upper side portions thereof and by structural braces 24 to support the rail portions that extend over the water on each side of the dock 10.

The crane 14 is also conventional to have a bridge part 25 that is supported by and travels along the rails 13, and a hoist part 26 that not only raises and lowers the cables 15 but is alsotransversely movable. Thus, the carriage assembly 16 may be raised and lowered by operation of the hoist part 26; the same may be moved transversely in either direction, as desired by transverse movement of the hoist part; and the carriage assembly may be moved into and out of the hangar structure 12 by causing the crane to travel along the rails 13. All of these controls may be effected by an operator on the landing 11 who is capable of movement into and out of the hangar struc The cables 15, of course, are carried by the hoist part 26 of the crane and, as shown, have a longitudinally spaced relationship. In this case, the lower ends of the cables are provided with hooks 27 that connect to the carriage assembly 16.

Said carriage assembly 16 comprises a longitudinal member 28 formed of a pair of side-by-side beams, the ends of which are connected to the cables 15 by the mentioned hooks 27, and two pairs of transverse arms 29 that are afiixed to the under faces of beams 28. Said arms 29 are longitudinally spaced from each other as well as from the ends of the beams 28. The member 28 and arms 29 form a horizontal double-crossed assembly with 3 the ends of said arms extending equally on both sides of the member 28. As best seen in FIG. 7, the ends of the pairs of arms 20 are provided with aligned lugs or the like 30, the same defining top-open seats 31.

The slings 17 are preferably made of nylon or similar tapes 32, and cross pins 33 on the ends of said bands and of a length to span between the arms 29 of each pair thereof and fit in the mentioned seats 31, are provided on said arms. .Such slings will be made up to suit the particular boat that they are to be used on. Actually, only the length of the nylon tapes need be varied according to the beam size of the boat as well as the proportional beam sizes at the two portions of the boat around which the slings are trained.

The slings for each boat are preferably carried aboard and, when a boat is awaiting lifting by the carriage assembly 16, the skipper readies the slings by placing the same around the boat at two places that have been predetermined so that the boat will be well-balanced when in the slings. Now, with the crane over the boat with the hoist part 26 vertically aligned therewith, the carriage assembly 16 is lowered so that the pins 33 on the ends of the tapes may be engaged in the ligned seats 31 above described. The seat selection will be according to the beam of the boat where the slings are trained therearound. Now, the hoist cables 15 may be raised to lift the boat out of the water clear of the clock and the hoist part 26 centered on the passage 19 of the hangar structure so that the crane 14 may be driven along rails 13 along said passage.

The hangar forks 18 preferably comprise pairs of beams 34 that are arranged in the longitudinally spaced pairs, as in FIGS. 1 and 2 with the latter spacing the same as the spacing of the arm 29 of the carriage assembly 16. As shown in said two figures, the spacing between the pairs of forks 13 is arranged to be large enough so that stored boats are longitudinally spaced as at 35, such spacing being used for admitting the hoist cables during a transfer of a boat to or from the forks 18. FIG. 8 shows lugs 36 in alignment across the upper surfaces of the fork beams 34 to form seats 37 that are similar to seats 31 and have the same purpose to engage and'hold cross pins 33 disposed therein; 7 a

From FIGS. 5, 7 and 8, it will be seen that the arms 29 of each pair thereof are spaced apart so that the beams 34 radily fit, with ample clearance, in the space between said arms. As can be seen from FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, the forks 18 are arranged in horizontal rows on each side of passage 19, spaced longitudinally, as above described, and the rows of forks are arranged in. vertical tiers. The vertical spacing between the forks is determined by the maximum height, between keel and rail or keel and superstructure, of the boats to be handled.

By manipulating the crane 14- and its parts so that a boat carried thereby is brought to a position directly opposed to the ends of a pair of forks 18, care being taken that the sling bands 32 are aligned with the spaces between the two pairs of fork beams 34 and the carriage arms 29 are slightly above said beams, as in FIG. 5, the crane is operated to laterally move the suspended boat in the direction of arrows 38 (FIGS. 3 and 6) to bring the cross pins 33 into vertical alignment with the seats 3-7 of the forks. Now lowering the cables 15 drops said pins into sea-ts 37 therebenea'th to effect a transfer of the suspended boat from the carriage 16 to the forks 18. A slight continuation of such lowering of the carriage will free the same from the pins 33. Now, it is a simple matter to return the empty carriage to the passage 19 and then move it back to the dock to pick up the next boat to be stored.

The reverse of the above effects removal of a boat from storage on a fork to disposition in the water alongside .the dock.

The forks 18 need not be spaced the same horizontal ly and vertically. In order to enable the present storage hangar to handle a large range of sizes of boats, portions of the hangar may have the forks spaced to suit boats that are larger than the smaller boats stored in other portions of the hangar.

The carriage 16 need not return empty from the hangar since the same may pick up another boat for transport to the dock after having placed a boat in storage.

It will be realized that the particular means disclosed for effecting an interchange between the carriage and forks may vary, providing the hand-off principle contemplated is used for this purpose.

While the foregoing has illustrated and described what is now contemplated to be the best mode of carrying out the invention, the construction is, of course, subject to modification without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Therefore, it is not desired to restrict the invention to the particular form of construction illustrated and described, but to cover all modifications that may fall within the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

1. Means to move a boat between a position in the water and a storage position comprising a pair of slings m which the boat is disposed, means on the ends of said slings extending along and above the sides of the boat, a carriage provided with arms that are transverse to the boat, means on the ends of the arms to separably connect with the means on the ends of the slings to hold a boat suspended by said slings, a pair of storage forks at the mentioned storage position, and means to move the carriage to a position above saidforks with the boat suspended below the forks and to lower the carriage to effect a transfer of said means on the ends of the sling ends from connection with the carriage to connection with the forks.

2. Means to move a boat between a position in the water and a storage position comprising a pair of slings in which the boat is disposed, means on the ends of said slings extending along and above the sides of the boat, a carriage provided with arms that are transverse to the boat, means on the ends of the arms to separably connect with the means on the ends of the slings to hold a boat suspended by said slings, a pair of storage forks at the mentioned storage position, and means to move the carriage first upwardly to raise the boat from the water, then in a direction longitudinally with the length of the boat, and then laterally to align the carriage arms with and dispose them above the forks with the boat suspended below the forks and, finally, to lower the carriage to effect a transfer of said means on the ends of the sling ends from connection with the carriage to connection with the forks.

37 Means according to claim 2 in which the means on the sling ends comprise transverse rigid members, and upper faces of the arms and forks are provided with top-open seats in which said members rest to effect the mentioned separable connections.

4. Means to move a boat between a position in the water and a storage position comprising a pair of slings in which the boat is disposed, means on the ends of the slings extending along and above the sides of the boat, means provided with arms transverse to the boat to separably connect with the means on the sling ends to hold a boat suspended by said slings, a pair :of storage forks, at the mentioned storage position, and means to move the last-mentioned means to a position with the means on the sling ends above said pair of forks and with the boat suspended below said forks, said moving means including means to lower the arms-provided means to efiect a transfer of the means on the "sling ends from connection with the arms-provided means to connection with the storage forks.

5. Means to move a boat between a position in the water and a storage position comprising a pair of slings in which the boat is disposed, means on the ends of the 5 6 slings disposed above the boat, means provided with arms References Cited in the file of this patent to isleparably connect with the means on the sling ends UNITED STATES PATENTS to old a boat suspended by said slings, a pair of storage forks at the mentioned storage position, and means to 1 32:1 et a1 6 move the arms-provided means to a position with the 5 19O0867 Olds 7 1933 means on the sling end above said pair of forks and trans- 2509O67 Leach 19,50 verse thereto and with the boat suspended below said 2:687:814 Aug 1954 forks, said moving means including means to lower the 2,709,012 Lessard May 5 arms-provided means to effect a transfer of the means on the sling ends from connection with the arms-provided 1O FOREIGN PATENTS means to support engagement on the storage forks. 320,467 Germany Apr. 22, 1920 

1. MEANS TO MOVE A BOAT BETWEEN A POSITION IN THE WATER AND A STORAGE POSITION COMPRISING A PAIR OF SLINGS IN WHICH THE BOAT IS DISPOSED, MEANS ON THE ENDS OF SAID SLINGS EXTENDING ALONG AND ABOVE THE SIDES OF THE BOAT, A CARRIAGE PROVIDED WITH ARMS THAT ARE TRANSVERSE TO THE BOAT, MEANS ON THE ENDS OF THE ARMS TO SEPARABLY CONNECT WITH THE MEANS ON THE ENDS OF THE SLINGS TO HOLD A BOAT SUSPENDED BY SAID SLINGS, A PAIR OF STORAGE FORKS AT THE MENTIONED STORAGE POSITION, AND MEANS TO MOVE THE CARRIAGE TO A POSITION ABOVE SAID FORKS WITH THE BOAT SUSPENDED BELOW THE FORKS AND TO LOWER THE CARRIAGE TO EFFECT A TRANSFER OF SAID MEANS ON THE ENDS OF THE SLING ENDS FROM CONNECTION WITH THE CARRIAGE TO CONNECTION WITH THE FORKS. 